


Slow Burn

by Schreibblockade



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cooking Lessons, Eventual Romance, F/F, Humor, Kalex Week, Minor Pam/Harley, Slow Burn, did you see what i did there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-02 00:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16294640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibblockade/pseuds/Schreibblockade
Summary: Written for Kalex Week 2018 Day 1: Accidental Dating/MarriageKara makes Alex attend a weekly LGBTQ+ centre event to make new friends. Things don’t exactly go to plan right from the get go.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Like some other people I talked to, the prompts that the community voted on didn't really ... speak to me, if you will.  
> So, this is the best I can come up with, for now, with the time restraints life is throwing at me. 
> 
> Heads up: I only watched S1 and the first ... 9 episodes or so of S2 and saw gifs of the other seasons on Tumblr. So. Uh. Keep that in mind. But also, in my mind, in this fic Alex totally dons the new undercut haircut. What an A+ lesbian. Well done. 10/10 would recommend.

“C’mon Alex, we’re doing this!”

 

“Kara, no.”

 

“Kara, **_yes_**!”

 

There is a maniacal gleam in Kara’s eyes when she drags Alex into the local LGBTQ+ centre. After Alex moped around in Kara’s apartment one evening too many—because being at her own apartment was still painful these days, even though it’s been a small eternity since Maggie—complaining about not having a social life because DEO paperwork simple took up too much time to even think about developing one, let alone a dating life, and that the majority of the friends she has are basically Kara’s friends, Kara decided to take matters regarding her sister’s free time into her own hands. And if she has to drag Alex there kicking and screaming, she’ll just focus on the fact that it’s for Alex’s own good.

 

“Honestly, Kara,” Alex begins, trying to free her wrist from Kara’s iron-like grasp, to the amusement of a few onlookers, “I’m fine with the way things are. Watching Netflix with you and having game nights and binging on food and “exercising”,”—their official codeword for Supergirl related stuff—“I don’t need anything else. Can we go back home now?”

 

Kara hums, scanning the large pin board that announces various group activities like hiking, soccer, arts and crafts etc., only half listening to Alex.

 

“You know, we focused too much on my problems in the past, and I also think it’s important for you to make more friends. Lady friends. Queer lady friends. Because that _is_ a huge part of who you are. And maybe find a new hobby that’s not just filling out paperwork or cleaning your guns. I worry about you, you know, I wanna be supportive and get you out of the house more. Even J’onn agreed. He is taking over my night job on Thursdays.”

 

Alex wants to roll her eyes, because she _totally_ does other things, thank you very much. Before she can defend what’s left of her honour, Kara is already pulling her along again, down a brightly lit hallway and into an open room, where about a dozen people of all ages, genders, shapes, sizes, nationalities and skin colours are sitting in a loose chair circle.

 

“Hi!” Kara’s beaming smile is so wide, it threatens to split her face. She pushes Alex down into an empty chair, before grabbing another one for herself and putting it close to her sister. “Is this the open cooking group?”

 

Alex snorts and rolls her eyes, dubiously eying the few cooking stations on the other side of the room, because, _of course_. Of all the activities Kara could’ve chosen. But, she reckons they both could benefit from actually knowing how to cook. If only to make the fire alarm stop going off randomly. It’s totally random. It clearly has a vendetta against Alex. It once went off when she _opened the fridge_.

 

A stocky woman, who seems to be in her mid-fourties, with kind eyes and long curly hair that’s a mix of brown speckled with some grey, smiles at them in invitation. “It is! My name is Amy, I host this group. Is this your first time here?”

 

“It is,” Kara says cheerfully. “We’re both kinda homebodies, so our New Year’s Resolution was to go out more and do more things together. And what better way to do it then by learning how to cook and meet like-minded people.” A few people murmur a welcome and give them kind smiles.

 

_What a blatant lie_ , is all Alex thinks during this. At the same time she’s glad that Kara is not re-hashing Alex’s coming out and the mess that was her whole relationship with Maggie and their subsequent break-up when they figured out that they had different plans in life. She crosses her arms in front of her in a deeply ingrained defensive move and slouches down in her chair. She is met with several raised eyebrows.

 

“The fire alarm hates us,” Alex mutters in defense. Well, it’s not a complete lie.

 

There’s a titter going through the group, as well as a few out-right belly laughs, and the host chuckles.

 

“Yeah, a few of us started out that way. Since you’re new, I’ll go over the house rules again. The basic fee is fifty bucks for five sessions. Absolutely, under no circumstances, try to flambé something. The ceiling is still charred from the last attempt.” Everyone’s eyes go the ceiling above the cooking stations unanimously. Indeed. “As far as ingredients go, we decide on a theme each week, and everybody brings their own stuff. Try to coordinate with the others, so there won’t be five sets of spices everybody only needs a teaspoon of, especially if it’s expensive and you need to buy it, or half-empty cans of something. The centre is supplying the utensils—if you break it, you replace it. Every six to eight weeks we all chip in and go to somebody’s home and cook a huge meal together to put all the skills we have learned to good use. So, be mentally prepared to have your home ravaged by locusts,” Amy ends with a smile, handing Kara some paperwork. “If you’re still not put off, sign this. It’s mostly for insurance reasons because of the appliances, nothing shady, I swear. Also, an attendance list, so the centre can keep statistics if maybe there needs to be more stuff or a bigger room in the future.”

 

Kara is grinning while she signs her name in a flourish, handing the pen to Alex, who signs her name in what other people would call a scrawl. Whatever. The DEO is paying her a decent amount, she could probably replace a few of these ovens with no problem whatsoever.

 

After deciding who gets which workstation for the evening, Alex and Kara, as well as the rest of the group, shuffle over to where the aprons are kept, and the cooking class starts.

 

##

 

Alex really doesn’t want to cut an onion. She stares at it mutinously, hoping it’ll decide to peel and chop itself. Onions always make her cry, no matter how mild. That’s why she usually makes Kara do it, because with her super speed it’s done in a second, with no danger of tearing up. The onions usually don’t know what hit them. But Kara can’t exactly use her power now, she’s blinking rapidly to keep the tears at bay while slowly cutting away.

 

“Peel them underneath running water,” comes a voice from next to Alex, making her startle. A woman, maybe around her age, with long blonde hair with blue and red streaks in, wearing what seems to be black yoga pants and a white-ish ringer tee, is casually working on her onion. “Trust me, it works. My girlfriend taught me that little trick. Either running water or a diving mask, but I guess you didn’t bring one. Also just breathe through your mouth while working on it, and make sure your knife is always sharp.”

 

Alex is dubious, but tries it anyways, re-sharpening her knife before peeling the onion underneath a stream of lukewarm water. Afterwards she cuts it while consciously breathing through her mouth, before putting it in a pan with heated oil. Without shedding a single tear.

 

“Oh my god,” Kara moans from next to her, dragging a wet paper towel over her own face, her eyes tinted red and slightly puffy. “Why has nobody ever told me that trick before. You’re a miracle worker!”

 

“Nah,” the woman chuckles, wiping her hands on a towel. “Just a girl with a girlfriend that pretty much knows everything there is to know about plants.” She sticks her hand out to Alex, who gives it a firm shake. “Oooh, strong grip, I like that in a woman,” the woman’s grin gets wide, worsening Alex’s slowly appearing blush.

 

“Alex Danvers,” Alex replies, trying to will down her red cheeks. “Is your girlfriend here as well?”

 

“Harleen Quinzel,” she introduces herself, before shaking Kara’s hand.

 

“Kara Danvers,” Kara says, excitingly shaking Harleen’s hand. “You’re a saviour, really, I can’t thank you enough.”

 

Harleen raises an eyebrow at Kara’s name, before turning around slightly, seemingly looking for her girlfriend. “Yeah, see the butch redhead over there in jeans and flannel? That’s my gal.”

 

Her face takes on a dreamy look, and Alex and Kara glance at each other, smiling. It’s cute.

 

“Yo Pam!” Harleen suddenly hollers far too loudly for such a small space, making both Alex and Kara cringe at the volume, but also at what comes next. “Meet this nice married couple!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to just let the muse reign free and see where this fic'll take me. Heaven knows most of my WIPs never see the light of day because I overthink them too much. Maybe this approach will work in everyone's favour.

Alex is silent the whole way back to Kara’s apartment, which only makes Kara’s worry grow exponentially with every passing step.

 

Alex was all smiles when Harleen’s girlfriend eventually wandered over to their station, introducing herself as Pamela Isley—apparently not even Pamela’s vast knowledge of plants can save them from being horrible cooks.

 

She laughed along with the two when they told them how they ended up in the cooking class in the first place—apparently even their two Dobermans Bud and Lou refusing to eat the latest concoction Pamela came up with was the final straw.

 

She gave them both a friendly handshake at the end, claiming that they’ll definitely have to do this again, sometime, maybe even outside of the limits of the cooking class.

 

The friendly facade dropped as soon as Harleen and Pamela vanished behind a street corner, the Alex Danvers trademark glare—patent pending—firmly back on her face. And, unfortunately, completely and unequivocally directed at Kara.

 

Kara doesn’t even remember how they made it home, but the door of her apartment closing behind them might as well have been a gunshot going off, putting Alex into motion.

 

“You signed us up for a **_gay couples_** ’ cooking class?!” Alex roars, her index finger poking at Kara’s chest. Kara winces and makes an effort to move with it, so there won’t be any broken fingers this evening.

 

“Technically,” Kara begins, fiddling with her glasses while shifting on her feet, “not everyone there identifies as gay.” Alex’s eyes darken further, clearly not in the mood to joke. “Technically, we are a couple of people somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum who want to learn how to cook?” Nope, judging by Alex’s look, this won’t work either. “I might’ve overlooked the couples part?”

 

Alex emits a long suffering groan, pulling at her hair. “God, Kara, this is a nightmare!” She huffs, plopping down on the sofa.

 

Kara squints at her, tilting her head. “Is it, though?” She begins, rounding the sofa and gingerly sitting down next to Alex. This is also not an evening to have broken furniture. She lifts one hand and counts down each finger as she says, “The plan was to get you out of the house for a few hours every week. That worked. The plan was to maybe get you some more queer lady friends. That seems to work as well, Harleen and Pamela are absolutely smitten with you. The plan was to find you a new hobby. We can both agree that we both need help with cooking, and what better way to start a new hobby than with someone you already know.”

 

“Kara,” Alex gets out through clenched teeth, “they think we’re married. _Everyone_ in this class thinks we’re married.”

 

Kara shrugs, scratching at her face before taking off her glasses, a slow blush forming on her cheeks. “So? Nobody there knows us. They’re all already couples, so it’s not like it’s keeping you from the dating scene. I agree that this isn’t a checked box on the list to get you a dating life, but—“

 

“Kara,” Alex begins with a heavy sigh, rubbing at her temples where a headache is quickly forming.

 

“—everyone there was super-nice and accommodating to absolute cooking failures like the two of us, unlike our friends and family who make jokes about it all the time. An older lady showed me how to peel garlic in, like, half the human-time, and one guy taught me how to easily and quickly cut cherry tomatoes in half, without having super speed that’s as good as it gets. I’ve learned more about proper cooking techniques in the past two hours than I’ve learned in the past two years, isn’t that amazing?!” Kara rambles on, clenching her fists on her thighs.

 

“Kar—“

 

“And maybe I’d like to spend time with you without someone else interrupting all the time. Doing something we both enjoy,” Kara mumbles, her eyes shifting to the side. “It feels like it’s been ages since we did something that was just the two of us, without significant others or Eliza or our friends around, or Supergirl missions getting in the way.”

 

Alex sighs again, staring blankly ahead for a while, before pulling Kara into a sideways hug. Kara goes along with it, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder. She feels the movement of Alex’s jaw against her head, before Alex finally speaks again.

  
“You’re right. No one there knows us. This is just like an undercover mission. We can make this work, it’s just a cooking class.” She ends by hugging Kara closer, laying her head on Kara’s.

 

Kara hums, turning her head into Alex’s neck more, the short hair of Alex’s undercut tickling her nose. She blindly reaches for Alex’s free hand, gently intertwining their fingers.

 

It’s nice to have something that’s just her and Alex’s again. When they moved to National City, far away from Eliza, it used to be her alien powers—a secret to be protected at all cost until that fateful day of Alex’s plane ride—but National City, and sometimes even the world, has claimed that for a while now. It used to be sisters night, until the arrival of Maggie and Alex’s subsequent gay awakening, and those night just tapered off. Kara liked Maggie, even when she did the whole “hurt my sister and I’ll throw you into space” spiel to let Maggie know to not cross a very specific line. Maggie made Alex happy, so Kara liked her. Even at the end, when she was hell bend to yell at Maggie for devastating Alex—until she realized that Maggie was hurting just as much. Even with Alex more or less living at Kara’s place after the breakup, it was less like before and more making sure that Alex found some healthy coping mechanisms instead of falling back into tried and true old ones. Still, it feels like whenever Kara wasn’t looking, there was another empty scotch bottle added to the recycling bin.

 

Kara releases a huff of contentment and grins when goosebumps immediately form on the skin that’s pressed against her nose. It feels right to cuddle on the couch, like they used to. It’s comfortable, and she knows that Alex especially is profiting from Kara’s core temperature running higher than a human’s, especially with fall fast approaching. It’s an almost perfect moment.

 

Which she decides to ruin with blowing a raspberry on Alex’s neck, making her squeal in surprise.

 

“You’re such a brat,” Alex gets out between trying to hit her in the face with a throw pillow, which Kara just counteracts by leaning more of her weight on Alex, trapping her on the couch in the process.

 

“I know,” Kara replies, cuddling further into Alex’s embrace. “Your brat, though.”

 

“Unfortunately.”

 

##

 

Nothing really changes, except, maybe it does, in small increments, so small that they’re not even consciously catching it.

 

##

 

“How long have the two of ya been together?” Harley asks Kara, stirring the incomplete Irish stew in the pot a couple of weeks later. The whole class decided to switch things up a bit and to switch partners for this evening, meaning Alex and Pam were at a work station a few rows down. At the very second class Pam and Harley convinced Kara and Alex to call them, well, Pam and Harley, because calling them by their full names sounded too much like being called out by a parent.

 

The question makes Kara startle and maybe come down a little too harshly on the cutting board, where she is preparing the last ingredients. “Who?” She asks, while subtly trying to hide the slight crack in the board.

 

Harley rolls her eyes playfully before bumping her hips against Kara’s. “You and Alex, of course.”

 

A bright smile takes over Kara’s face, and her eyes flick down to where Alex and Pam are preparing their stew in companionable silence. “Sometimes it feels like half of my life,” she begins, smiling softly at Alex, who miraculously, is chopping onions without any complaints. “My whole family died in an accident when I was about thirteen. Her parents took me in and fostered me, adopted me; but she gave me a home.” It should feel like laying it on a bit thick, but ... it’s the truth, at least for Kara. After their teenaged selves overcame their difficulties with each other, Alex was the only person making life on this planet worthwhile. Saving the world is nice and doing the right thing and all, but it was really Alex she was doing it for.

 

Next to her, Harley is cooing softly. “That’s super cute,” she drawls, taking the cutting board from Kara and dumping the potatoes and carrots in the stew. “So you’ve been together since high school?”

 

Kara can feel herself starting to panic. They never prepared a back-story for the slim chance that someone actually might ask how they got together. It’s a _cooking class_ , not a double-date. She chuckles, trying to calm herself down. The best lies are those closest to the truth, right?

 

“Actually, not at all. She hated me in the beginning, because I basically barged in, albeit unintended, and turned her life on its head. I was the weird foster sister she had to take care of, on top of her own problems. In retrospect, that’s a bit much to dump on a fourteen-year-old teenager,” Kara shrugs, working on cutting the mutton into bite-sized pieces. “It got better for a little while when she went to college, but then she almost disappeared on me. She was studying bio-engineering, on the way to get a PhD and also an MD on the side. So, always busy, little free time,” she mumbles, sliding the mutton from the cutting board into the stew. “It was touch and go there, for a while, for various reasons. I’m working at CatCo, which is also busy twenty-four/seven. For the longest time it felt like maybe it wasn’t meant for us to have free time at the same time, despite living in the same city. But I’d like to think that, despite the difficulties on the way, it turned out exactly the way it should.”

 

When she glances at Harley, she is surprised to see her completely transfixed.

 

“Oh man,” Harley whispers, her eyes suspiciously glistening, “that’s almost Shakespear-ian shit right there. Star-crossed lovers, and all that jazz.”

 

Kara blushes, fiddling with her glasses. If only Harley knew how star-crossed her life really is. “But enough about me,” Kara says maybe a touch too excited and too obviously a diversion tactic, “How did you and Pam meet?”

 

Harley smiles, twirling a lock of hair around her index finger, while her free hand changes the controls of the stove to a low simmer for the stew.

 

“I was in a bad place, mentally, for a long time. My ex-boyfriend was garbage, but I wasn’t able to leave him. She was my best friend. Well, still is.” Bright eyes focus on Pam, who lets out a full-belly laugh in response to whatever Alex just said. “She always said he didn’t deserve me, that he didn’t love me, at least not how he should. Maybe I was just too blind to see him for who he was, who knows, I was younger then. She gave me the courage and strength to leave him, took me and my dogs in, helped me on my feet, got me a good therapist. Because, ‘just because you’re a psychiatrist, doesn’t mean you’re in a good place to help yourself,’” Harley says, putting the last sentence in visible bunny ears with her hands. She shifts to lean against the workstation. “And, I guess, at some point I realized that she literally is the love of my life, and that I want to kiss her and adopt another ten dogs or cats with her. So I kissed her, right then and there, in her little greenhouse, the both of us having dirt all over us because of whatever project she was working on at the time. She was still the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, inside and out.”

 

Kara is trying really hard to hold back tears. Rao, what was she thinking, signing up for a couples’ class with real people that had real problems. She channels her bad conscience into a forward motion and hugs Harley instead. Who seems a tad surprised, but returns the hug nonetheless.

 

“I’m sorry,” Kara sniffles, stepping back after a short while. “It’s just ... a topic I get very emotional about.”

 

“I bet,” Harley grins, wiping away a tear from Kara’s cheek. “You look like Alex hung the moon and stars for you every time you talk about her. It always gives me hope when other queer couples beat the odds.”

 

The smile on her face feels a little too wide, too fake, but it’s probably genuine enough for someone who doesn’t know her that well.

 

##

 

“So,” Alex begins, swiping the last of the ingredients into the pot before putting the cutting board and knife into the sink, “Have you and Harley been together long?” She’s making an effort. Small-talk is not her forte, but Pam and Harley seem nice enough to maybe make the jump from acquaintances to friends some day. Oh god, or should she have asked about the pets instead? Relationships are always such loaded topics—

 

Pam chuckles, twirling the cooking spoon around in her right hand. Her face is partially hidden by her long red hair. The side-cut on one side of her skull makes way to an intricate ivy tattoo that disappears somewhere beneath the collar of her soft-looking flanell.

  
“Not that long, actually, maybe a year?” She muses, her green eyes focusing on Harley, who seems to be in a deep conversation with Kara. “We’ve been best friends way longer. Her ex was an abusive ass, and I took her in when she finally got away from him. One day she kissed me in the greenhouse, while we were repotting gardenias. Been officially together since.” She hums, taste-testing the stew, before deciding to add some more salt and pepper. “How about you and sunshine personified over there?”

 

Alex’s stomach flips the way it always does when she’s out on an undercover mission and discovers that her back-story is as structurally sound as Swiss cheese. Close to the truth while being evasive it is, then.

 

“It’s complicated,” she begins, spurred on by Pam’s raised eyebrows. “My parents fostered her since she was thirteen, later adopting her. I couldn’t stand her for the longest time,” her shoulders hunch together while she vigorously scrubs the dishes. “Things got worse in College before they got better eventually when I figured out I was gay.”

 

Pam lets out an amused snort next to her. “Tell me about it, puberty was a bitch, and then college? Confusing as hell. Never had the same problem like you two have with being foster siblings, that must’ve felt weird in the beginning. But, eh,” she shrugs, “Love is love. Under different circumstances she ‘just’ would’ve been your BFF before you eventually fell in love.”

 

This gives Alex pause, for an infinitesimal moment, before she resumes drying the dishes. Kara never would’ve been her BFF if circumstances were different and Krypton was still there.

 

Maybe it’s time to switch to a different, safer topic.

 

“How’s life in a two-bedroom apartment with a girlfriend, two Dobermans and a ton of plants?” Smooth, Alex, real smooth.

 

If Pam is confused about the sudden change in topics, she doesn’t show it. She laughs loudly instead, slapping Alex lightly on a shoulder. “It’s a fucking nightmare. I wouldn’t change it for a million bucks.”

 

##

 

There’s a weird mood between them once they’re back in Kara’s apartment. Normally they’d catch up on their day or talk about what they learned in the past few hours, even though they literally were both there. This evening both Kara and Alex catch themselves trying to start a conversation a few times, before eventually stopping themselves, never saying a single word.

 

Ultimately Alex gets two spoons and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s while Kara starts up Netflix.

 

If they maybe cuddle more during their hundredth rewatch of _Lilo & Stitch_, they’ll just claim that it’s slowly getting colder outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the nice comments you guys! Even though I'm rubbish at answering, know that I cherish every single one of them. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Don't yell at me. I know it ends kinda abruptly. I'd like to expand this fic, but for the time being it is what it is.


End file.
